Re-powering of an Electric Locomotive

If old 46 could talk it would have a lot of good stories to tell. I am not exactly sure who fathered Old 46, but it must have been someone who was into HO. Old 46 is patterned after the little Athearn locomotive called the Hustler.

Originally, the little guy must have had a small gasoline engine inside - just guessing from all the extra bolt holes. At some point it was re-powered using batteries and two salt spreader motors.

Through no fault of it’s own, it became the property of some guy that didn’t understand all that he knew about railroading. It ended up on the Western Illinois Railroad for a time after a deal fell though and a lawsuit resulted. Old 46 was held for ransom at the W.I. for about a year. We kept his batteries charged and ran him from time to time just for the heck of it. At one point, I got a drunken phone call from Old 46’s owner who claimed he was the father. (We found that he was just the step father) He informed me that Old 46 could pull the socks off my GP-40. Well that was throwing down the engineer’s gloves for sure.

We hooked Old 46 up to the back of the GP-40. One loco headed one way down the track and the other one the other way. We were going to get to the bottom of this. I hollered "Go!" and Mark hit the full throttle on Old 46. And I hit the control on my GP-40 (both battery operated) Well, I thought the coupler must have broken, the GP didn’t even groan. It just took off pulling Old 46 right along his little drivers spinning in defiance all the way…

We had a big laugh over that. Old 46 only weighed about 100 pounds soakin' wet and the GP is about 850 pounds. We knew that, but you know how us guys are. We just had to prove our stuff anyway.

Well, after the lawsuit was settled Old 46 had to go to a foster home. There were kids and Old 46 had a good time playing until his wiring gave out. It wasn’t fair. Old 46 was wired with old dried out cables and used parts. He never had a chance at being all he could be.

So, last July he was brought to Lee’s locomotive shop for a major over haul. He was stripped down to the frame and all the old junk parts were gotten rid of. This time all three batteries were put inside the loco for extra weight. Gotten rid of was the little tender that held the third battery. The little tender had a wheel with half the flange missing. What a pitiful sight. I was afraid to set on that thing even for a test run.

Last weekend Old 46 was all done and ready for a test run. Boy was Old 46 feeling his oats. I couldn’t help but smile as I circumnavigated the W.I. lower loop at about 100 scale miles per hour.

Later I coupled up to 4 heavy cars and gave them a tug. Didn’t slow Old 46 down hardly any. He was one happy locomotive.

I am pretty satisfied with the way that little guy performs. I guess he has finally saved face and been vindicated from the embarrassing loco-pull of a few years back. Hopefully Old 46 has many years ahead of pleasing it’s owner with high performance in a small package.

Basically all the electronics that you see on Old 46 is the very same stuff used in the SD-60’s and the other locos. Not all that technical.